Cuba

2012

Worldwide tally reaches highest point since CPJ began
surveys in 1990. Governments use charges of terrorism, other anti-state offenses
to silence critical voices. Turkey is the world’s worst jailer. A CPJ special report

Cuba,
historically one of the world's worst jailers of journalists, has returned to
CPJ's prison census after a one-year absence. Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, a
reporter for the independent news agency Centro de Información Hablemos Press, was
imprisoned in September after he started looking into why an international shipment of medicine was allowed to go
bad, according to news reports.

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New York, November 9, 2012--Cuban authorities charged journalist Yaremis Flores with anti-state crimes on Wednesday in connection with news articles critical of the government, an arrest that sparked two waves of protests and detentions outside a Havana police station. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities to drop the charges against Flores immediately.

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New York, October 5, 2012--The Committee to Protect
Journalists condemns the arrest of three independent Cuban bloggers and calls
for their immediate release. Yoani Sánchez, one of Cuba's most prominent
bloggers, was detained yesterday along with her husband, journalist Reinaldo
Escobar, and blogger Agustín Díaz in the city of Bayamo, according to news
reports.

One big reason for the Internet's success is its role as a
universal standard, interoperable across the world. The data packets that leave
your computer in Botswana are the same as those which arrive in Barbados. The
same is increasingly true of modern mobile networks. Standards are converging: You can use your phone, access an app, or send a text, wherever you are.

CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney counts down the 10 countries where the
press is most tightly restricted. How do leaders in these nations silence the
media? And which country is the worst of all? (4:03)

Read CPJ's report on the 10 Most Censored countries for more detail
on how censorship works, and which countries were the runners-up.

CPJ's
Journalist Assistance Program supports journalists who cannot be helped by
advocacy alone. In 2011, we assisted 171 journalists worldwide. Almost
a fourth came from countries that made CPJ's Most Censored list. Eight journalists from Eritrea,
five from Syria, six from Cuba, and a whopping 20 from Iran sought our help
after being forced to leave their countries, having suffered the consequences
of defying censorship at home.

In 2010, following midsummer negotiations between the
Catholic Church and the government of President Raúl Castro, Cuban authorities
began releasing imprisoned journalists, sending them into forced exile with their
families. In April 2011, the last of more than 20 journalists arrived in Spain.
They had been granted liberty and respite, and were promised support from
Spanish authorities while they settled into the new country. But almost two
years after the first crop of journalists arrived in Spain, the four who remain
in the country are living under extremely difficult
conditions, struggling even to feed themselves.